Six Principles of Integration

The following six principles are essential for success in your data integration project:

▪ Understand Motivations - in order to be clear on direction, it is important to spend the time to understand your own and others’ motivations at a personal and an organizational level. There is a common reaction to data integration as “getting in my way” or as being police officers and stopping what is important to “me”.

▪ Have a Clear, Compelling, Common Vision - Understand where you are heading, why it is such a worthwhile place to go, and how others can benefit from common goals. If there is an exciting vision that is well understood and communicated, and appeals to the common good of the people in the enterprise, then how can there not be a great deal of positive energy towards achieving it?

▪ Trust Is Key in Effective Data Integration - Trust is the glue that allows people to share, be open to looking at, and improve data integration. A trusting environment can result in huge buy-in from employees, thus increasing productivity and results.

▪ Learn from the Past – Why not learn what has worked and what has not worked and reuse instead of re-inventing?

▪ Momentum Comes from Involvement - Once motivations are understood and addressed, and there is a clear vision and a trusting environment, involvement and commitment follows. With the addition of principles of inclusion, even more involvement and commitment can be achieved.

▪ Appreciate perspectives versus being right - A symptom of separation is righteousness. When there is separateness, there are inconsistencies in data as well as in other areas. When people don’t acknowledge that there are many valid perspectives, and insist on a right way of being or a “single version of the truth”, then it is very difficult to establish data integration. If people in data integration efforts, such as a data management program, harshly claim that their way is the “only” or “best” way without any flexibility, there is bound to be resistance.

We offer workshops that delve into studying and applying these principles using various tools, techniques, models and exercises that simulate the common scenarios that occur on integration efforts.